Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the June 6, 1996 issue of Workers World newspaper

Puerto Rican Independistas look to '98 protests

By Carlos Rovira, Workers World, 6 June 1996

New York - A May 18 conference in the South Bronx focused on
organizing to protest the upcoming centennial of the U.S.
invasion of Puerto Rico--July 25, 1998. "Puerto Rico
Committee '98," composed of Independentista groups and
individuals, is calling for opposition to Washington's plans
to commemorate this infamous historical event.

The scheduled celebration will glorify the outcome of the
1898 Spanish-American War in which the Philippines, Guam,
Cuba and Puerto Rico were invaded. Spain's colonial
domination was then transferred to the United States in
accordance with the Treaty of Paris.

Speakers at the conference also discussed the right wing's
campaign calling for annexation of Puerto Rico through
statehood with a proposed plebiscite for the centennial
year. Unlike previous plebiscites, this time independence
and statehood will be the only two options.

Many believe the right wing is confident of winning
because of many setbacks the independence movement has
suffered due to repression. Others also see the vote as a
ploy to divert attention from potential protests against the
100th-anniversary celebration.

QUE VIVA PUERTO RICO LIBRE!

The conference underscored the prerequisites for a
plebiscite, which the U.S. government refuses to recognize.
They are: removal of all foreign military bases and
personnel; removal of all repressive agencies of the
colonizing government--FBI, CIA, DEA, etc.; transfer of all
government powers to native jurisdictions; immediate release
of political prisoners and POWs; immediate economic
retribution; and eligibility to vote in the plebiscite for
everyone who migrated to the colonizing country and their
descendants.

Bomexi Iztaccihuati De Sendini, coordinator for the Andres
Figueroa Cordero Foundation and correspondent for Claridad
newspaper, explained the fallacies behind U.S.-sponsored
plebis cites to Workers World. He said they "are meaningless
simply because U.S. federal laws clearly state that the U.S.
Congress has the final decision on matters concerning Puerto
Rico, no matter what the outcome of a plebiscite vote."

Olga Sanabria, the former emissary from the Office Of
Puerto Rico in socialist Cuba--a shadow embassy of the
Puerto Rican struggle--added: "Our country is part of the
international community of nations. The global effect of the
fall of the Soviet Union is what the right wing in Puerto
Rico, is taking advantage of."

The USSR was a principal supporter of Puerto Rican self-
determination. Along with socialist Cuba, the Soviet Union
fought hard to put the case of Puerto Rico on the United
Nations Decolonization Committee's agenda. The Puerto Rican
independence movement will never forget this act of
solidarity.

Among other speakers at the conference were Ponce Laspina,
representing the Nationalist Party of Puerto Rico, and a
representative of Workers World Party, who spoke on the need
to build solidarity against the common enemy of the workers
and oppressed.

It was concluded that efforts in the United States will be
planned in conjunction with anti-colonial mobilizing
activities on the island for 1998. In opposition to this
disgraceful celebration the conference agreed that the
solemn words "Que Viva Puerto Rico Libre!" will be heard
throughout the world.